Algonquin Books Blog

If the hectic holiday season is pressuring you, we have just the thing to provide a bit of perspective — a “good-humored and self-deprecating memoir,” as Harper’s said in its January review. Plus, it’s free for Giveaway Monday…

by Ashok Rajamani

After a full-throttle brain bleed at the age of twenty-five, Ashok Rajamani, a first-generation Indian American, had to relearn everything: how to eat, how to walk and to speak, even things as basic as his sexuality.

With humor and insight, he describes the events of that day (his brain exploded just before his brother’s wedding!), as well as the long, difficult recovery period. In the process, he introduces readers to his family—his principal support group, as well as a constant source of frustration and amazement. Irreverent, coruscating, angry, at times shocking, but always revelatory, his memoir takes the reader into unfamiliar territory, much like the experience Alice had when she fell down the rabbit hole. That he lived to tell the story is miraculous; that he tells it with such aplomb is simply remarkable.

More than a decade later he has finally reestablished a productive artistic life for himself, still dealing with the effects of his injury—life-long half-blindness and epilepsy— but forging ahead as a survivor dedicated to helping others who have suffered a similar catastrophe.

Enter to win THE DAY MY BRAIN EXPLODED

Please fill out this form for a chance to receive a copy of The Day My Brain Exploded. The winner's name will be chosen at random. You may only enter once TODAY, DECEMBER 10, 2012.